A "special branch" of police had to be called to the A40 Greenford Flyover after a Christmas tree in the road caused problems for motorists.

Transport for London's traffic news Twitter account tweeted a picture of the tree in lane one of the "trunk" road, warning that motorists were being forced to break harshly or swerve to avoid the tree.

The tree was discovered on a traffic camera on the westbound carriageway shortly after 3pm on Thursday (November 16).

Luckily the drivers were all "pine" after the incident.

A short while later they applauded the "tree-mendous" work of police who had come to the rescue and cleared the obstruction.

Not to be outdone, "tree-ter" users in London responded in characteristic punny style.

Tony told the TfL staffer to "leaf it out", while Paul recommended they quit the day job and "branch off into comedy".

Rob Walker, meanwhile was "glad to see the police branching out into new lines of work".

Grinchy Dave Sargent remarked: "This is what happens when people start Christmas in November".

"Needles" to say, if you are transporting a Christmas tree, please do be careful when securing it to your car to prevent it from ending up on the road and blocking someone's "root".

Keep up to date with the latest news in west London via the free getwestlondon app.

You can set up your app to see all the latest news and events from your area, plus receive push notifications for breaking news.